False
False , adjective
[Latin falsus, past participle of fallere to deceive; compare Old French faus, fals, French faux, and Anglo-Saxon fals fraud. See Fail, Fall.]
1.
Uttering falsehood; unveracious; given to deceit; dishnest; as, a false witness.
2.
Not faithful or loyal, as to obligations, allegiance, vows, etc.; untrue; treacherous; perfidious; as, a false friend, lover, or subject; false to promises.
I to myself was false, ere thou to me.
3.
Not according with truth or reality; not true; fitted or likely to deceive or disappoint; as, a false statement.
4.
Not genuine or real; assumed or designed to deceive; counterfeit; hypocritical; as, false tears; false modesty; false colors; false jewelry.
False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
5.
Not well founded; not firm or trustworthy; erroneous; as, a false claim; a false conclusion; a false construction in grammar.
Whose false foundation waves have swept away.
6.
Not essential or permanent, as parts of a structure which are temporary or supplemental.
7.
(Music) Not in tune.
Collocations (30)
False arch (Architecture) , a member having the appearance of an arch, though not of arch construction.
False attic , an architectural erection above the main cornice, concealing a roof, but not having windows or inclosing rooms.
False bearing , any bearing which is not directly upon a vertical support; thus, the weight carried by a corbel has a false bearing.
False cadence , an imperfect or interrupted cadence.
False conception (Medicine) , an abnormal conception in which a mole, or misshapen fleshy mass, is produced instead of a properly organized fetus.
False croup (Medicine) , a spasmodic affection of the larynx attended with the symptoms of membranous croup, but unassociated with the deposit of a fibrinous membrane.
False door or False window (Architecture) , the representation of a door or window, inserted to complete a series of doors or windows or to give symmetry.
False fire , a combustible carried by vessels of war, chiefly for signaling, but sometimes burned for the purpose of deceiving an enemy; also, a light on shore for decoying a vessel to destruction.
False galena , See Blende.
False imprisonment (Law) , the arrest and imprisonment of a person without warrant or cause, or contrary to law; or the unlawful detaining of a person in custody.
False keel (Nautical) , the timber below the main keel, used to serve both as a protection and to increase the shio's lateral resistance.
False key , a picklock.
False membrane (Medicine) , the fibrinous deposit formed in croup and diphtheria, and resembling in appearance an animal membrane.
False papers (Nautical) , documents carried by a ship giving false representations respecting her cargo, destination, etc., for the purpose of deceiving.
False passage (Surgery) , an unnatural passage leading off from a natural canal, such as the urethra, and produced usually by the unskillful introduction of instruments.
False personation (Law) , the intentional false assumption of the name and personality of another.
False pretenses (Law) , false representations concerning past or present facts and events, for the purpose of defrauding another.
False rail (Nautical) , a thin piece of timber placed on top of the head rail to strengthen it.
False relation (Music) , a progression in harmony, in which a certain note in a chord appears in the next chord prefixed by a flat or sharp.
False return (Law) , an untrue return made to a process by the officer to whom it was delivered for execution.
False ribs (Anatomy) , the asternal rebs, of which there are five pairs in man.
False roof (Architecture) , the space between the upper ceiling and the roof. — Oxford Gloss
False token , a false mark or other symbol, used for fraudulent purposes.
False scorpion (Zoology) , any arachnid of the genus Chelifer. See Book scorpion.
False tack (Nautical) , a coming up into the wind and filling away again on the same tack.
False vampire (Zoology) , the Vampyrus spectrum of South America, formerly erroneously supposed to have blood-sucking habits; -- called also vampire, and ghost vampire. The genuine blood-sucking bats belong to the genera Desmodus and Diphylla. See Vampire.
False window (Architecture) , See False door, above.
False works (Civil Engineering) , construction works to facilitate the erection of the main work, as scaffolding, bridge centering, etc.
False , adverb
Not truly; not honestly; falsely.
You play me false.
False , transitive verb
[Latin falsare to falsify, from falsus: compare French fausser. See False, a.]
1.
To report falsely; to falsify. [Obsolete] — Chaucer
2.
To betray; to falsify. [Obsolete]
[He] hath his truthe falsed in this wise.
3.
To mislead by want of truth; to deceive. [Obsolete]
In his falsed fancy.
4.
To feign; to pretend to make. [Obsolete]
And falsed oft his blows.